Firebelle Lil

March is National Women’s Month. We have asked one of our favorite female bartenders, Pipi Rae Diamond, to come up with a drink in honor of National Women’s Month. Since we are in San Francisco, Pipi choose to honor Lilly Hitchcock, a 19th century San Francisco socialite who was the honorary mascot of the San Francisco Fire Department. Lilly Hitchcock was a woman ahead of her time and was quite the firecracker. If you ever visit San Francisco, you can see her monument to San Francisco and it’s Fire Department in Coit Tower, which was built with money she left in her will and allegedly is designed to look like a fire hose. You can see why the drink is named Firebell Lil!

Our friend Pipi has been bartending for over two years at parties and special events. She currently bartends at the Presidio Social Club restaurant as well as for Barbara Llewellyn Catering in Oakland and Best Beverage Catering in San Francisco. According to Pipi, she fell in love with cocktails on a trip to Cuba while sipping her first Cuba Libre in Havana and has continued her unabiding love affair with sugar cane based spirits. Pipi will be competing next Tuesday night as part of the Don Q rum Spirit of Puerto Rico challenge at 620 Jones bar in San Francisco.

Firebell Lil will be the drink of the week next week at the Presidio Social Club (starting Monday, March 23) so drop in and give it a try! In addition to serving Firebell Lil, the Presidio Social Club is a hidden gem in the Presidio National Park where it once housed the officer’s club at the Presidio Army base.

Ingredients

1.5 oz. Campo de Encanto pisco

1 oz. St Germain elderflower liqueur

½ oz. fresh lime juice

2.5 oz. Fever-Tree ginger beer

3 drops of Angostura bitters

Instructions

Build in a highball or collins glass filled with ice. Pour in the pisco, elderflower liqueur, and lime juice then fill the glass with ginger beer. Fold the bay leaf in half lengthwise to release its aroma and stick it pointing up between an ice cube and the side of the glass.